I will be traveling around a lot this year, again. Last year two things happened: I paid a fortune in roaming, and I lost my brand-new smartphone somewhere in Asia. This year I want to a) Leave my expensive phone at home, b) get a prepaid cell with roaming to make sure I don’t go above my slotted plan. A data plan would be nice too, but I can bum wifi from hotels if needed.
Hours of internet search yields nothing, the pre-paid providers I found offer no international roaming service. I just need a cheap smartphone to check my phone, get sms and check my email.
Anyone knows any company that offers this? Thanks!
I’d say ditch the prepaid requirement, but still get a cheap phone and no-contract plan with any of the Simple Choice plans from Tmobile. Unlimited international data and texting, calls are .20 a minute. And there are ways to use data to make calls when you have a good connection in order to make the calls free, too.
When I went to Lima in 2014 my prepaid T-Mobile phone hooked right up to T-Mobile Perú as soon as I was there. I made no prior arrangements and didn’t have to do anything other than turn on the phone. That’s the sum total of my international phone experience.
A standard option is to purchase a local SIM card in the countries you are traveling to.
Voltaire, that sounds like a great solution. I’ll probably buy one of their cheaper models, in case I lose it, again.
Arrendajo, I’ll check that too. I would really prefer a pre-paid option, if possible.
Past Tense, I need my clients in the US to be able to call a “local” number, plus I would have to buy several SIM cards in several countries.
There’s not much reason to prefer a prepaid plan to a Tmobile Simple Choice Plan, since there’s no annual contract. Basically, it’s a month to month contract and you can bring your own phone, buy one of theirs outright, or commit to make 24 payments over 2 years to finance a phone.
The only practical reason I can think of to prefer a prepaid plan to this is if you didn’t want them to run a credit check, but even then, there’s a Simple Choice Plan that doesn’t require a credit check. (though the plan isn’t quite as good)
ETA: Let us know if you need phone rec’s
What’s “recs”.
I have a contract, so I wasn’t sure there was something else besides contract and pre-paid.
Sorry, I meant phone recommendations.
Yeah, the Simple Choice plan contract is monthly, not annual or biannual like most contract plans. Only choosing to finance a phone will get you on a two year contract, but even then, you can leave whenever you pay off the phone.